july 15, 2007: its sunday and the british knighting of salmaan rushdie just irks the shit outta me

Dear Readers,

It’s been a deep and yet not deep enough day in the news. Keep reading for today’s Hip Hop based commentary on what New York Times headline articles say and, more importantly, don’t say, by political poet Naxal. That’s me. I flips the news like you never seen. Almost on the Daily. Enjoy.

July 15, 2007

okay, remember when iran caught hold of the cherubic six british soldiers infringing into iranian waters? iran held onto the brady bunch looking pirates like so much bounty despite near apoplectic demands by britain and the u.s. for the return of the so called hostages back to the u.k. and now, the queen of england awards salman rushdie the status of knighthood which he accepts. someones getting back at iran. and iran, regrettably, is publicly foaming at the mouth about rushdie, again. i wish they brushed it off, thereby robbing the british and rushdie of any perverse pleasure that could be had off this inane shit. can you tell it irks me? yeah, just a bit.

valentines day, 1989, khomeini issues a fatwa calling for the death of rushdie for the author’s so called desecration of the globally revered prophet mohammed. decades later, and the hunt is on again. for who? for a writer. with so much internalized racism you can barely see his true color any more. a writer. with so much talent, his sentences leave you calling out for more. and i don’t want to abandon you, rushdie. you are talented, you are leader, and now, you are more a pawn than ever before. i don’t like how black folks are doing michael jackson, and i don’t want us to do that to you. but knighted…by the british? dude, wasn’t there anything else for you to do? couldn’t you have gone shopping that day in picadilly circus? rode a double decker bus, bought the bus with cash and then picked up random tourists telling them there is such a thing as a free ride? i expected more from your imagination. but then, internalized racism is a bitch.

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it is 1932/two years after many of us marched for salt

i didnt/i am paid by the british army

white pants/red soil

these palms read countless times

by mummi of three pots, 15 children, and one hundreds of ryhmes

fate etched/my hands awake

to touch meri pathi goodbye

she is threading jasmin ropes through the midst of her hair

black and white fill my nose

i am proud for this job

to have a place to go

looking so/smart

though the propaganda pavement

civilizes/cements

what color

is the grey of my heart?

*

Stay tuned for more of All the News That’s Fit to Flip by political poet, NaXaL. You could read the news, or you could read me. I say, do both!